One of the areas of continued progress of inkjet printing is that of print heads. Development is ongoing and is working towards improved print speeds, quality and resolution, versatility in handling different ink bases and viscosity, robustness of the print heads for industrial applications, and improved width of printing swathes. Manufacturers have reduced printer prices by incorporating much of the actual print head into the cartridge itself. The manufacturers believe that since the print head is the part of the printer that is most likely to wear out, replacing it every time the cartridge is replaced can increase the life of the printer.
Modern inkjet printing is performed with a self-contained print head that includes an ink reservoir, complete with inkwell, spraying mechanism, and nozzles that can be controlled accurately. An inkjet print head may contain nozzles or orifices for the ejection of printing fluid onto a printing medium. Nozzles are typically arranged in one or more arrays such that characters or images may be printed on a medium moving relative to the nozzle array. Print head attributes that may determine print head performance include ink drop volume, pen types, ink types, and column to column nozzle spacing. Data representing the inkjet attributes is stored with the print head and can be read by the inkjet printer during initialization.